I am back from my trip to Colombia (the country, not the university) and ready to gooo!

Colombia was the setting for the film “Romancing the Stone”, and I’ve lovingly titled my recent trip “Romancing the Bug Bites.”  Wooh those Colombian sand flies don’t play.  Here’s a pic of their handy work.

Now it may not look like much, but let me assure you, as a highly sensitive, uber allergic person in general, the introduction to never-before-been-bitten-by-bugs was excruciatingly uncomfortable.

It was the itch that refused to be scratched.

Scratching just made things worse.

Thinking about it was a mistake.

Someone else commenting on (or even looking at) the bites made it unbearable.

In fact, every time I put even a fraction of my attention on the situation, I thought I might go mad.

So why am I sharing all this with you?

It reminds me of a a useful truism that I not only experienced firsthand with sand-fly-gate, but can also be applied to your acting career.

Here it is:

What you put energy into grows.

 

Whenever I focused on how itchy the bites were, the itchiness seemed to grow.  Every time I put energy into thinking about how uncomfortable I was, my discomfort seemed to grow.  Each time I thought about how miserable and unhappy I was, the misery seemed to grow.

Just like the gardener who plants a seed, adds water, sunshine, nutrients, and loving attention, the energy put in causes the seed to grow.

Whatever you focus your energy toward will also grow.

This is true for both positive AND negative things.

Think about your own life.  I imagine you have a friend who always finds the good in people or situations, no matter what.  Don’t you just love being around that person?

Then think about the friend who – no matter what she has going on, finds a way to crap all over it.  Right?  And many times, this person often has more money, more success, more opportunities, or simply just MORE than you.  And yet, she finds a way to complain about it.  Ugh.

In my experience, the key to happiness, opportunities and success begins with your perception.  If you want to be happy, you won’t create it by beating yourself up.  You’ll create it by choosing to focus on the happiness you already have now.

If you want more success, you won’t create it by talking about how hard things are.  You’ll create it by recognizing where you already have success now, and taking action to create more of it.

Let’s say you want to book a film.  But you choose to focus on all the obstacles you perceive as being in the way.  What usually happens?  The obstacles seem to grow.

On the other hand, let’s say you want to book a film and choose to focus on all the ways that this could be possible.  What do you think will happen?  The possibilities will begin to grow.

And it isn’t because there are magically more obstacles or more possibilities, it is simply a shift in how you perceive what is available to you.

Back to the bug bites…

Remember that film “Romancing the Stone” with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas?  It was set in Colombia (although not actually filmed there).  Inspired by the idea of romancing a situation, I chose to “romance the bug bites.”  The bug bites happened.  It wasn’t going to change.  So I could either – bitch, complain and be miserable, OR focus on what was actually good about my experience.

When I chose to focus on all the good, the incredible beauty, my gratitude for being fortunate enough to have such an experience, the fun of my companions, my discomfort completely fell away.

What this means for you

 

Are there places in your career (or personal life, financial outlook, health, fill-in-the-blank) where you are focused on problems rather than solutions?

Let me share a very powerful (and super simple) exercise to get whatever you want!  (I learned this from one of my mentors, David Neagle)

Choose a career goal that both excites and terrifies you.  (It shouldn’t feel impossible, but if your goal doesn’t scare you, even a little bit, you are likely playing it too safe).

Write the goal down on a blank sheet of paper.

On one side of the paper write down “How I CAN”.

On the oppsite side of the paper write down “Why I CAN’T.”

Begin to brainstorm all the ideas that come to you to accomplish your goal.

As you do this, your mind is going to jump up to say things like “I’m too old, they’ll never want me,” “I can’t ask that person for help it’s too awkward,” “I don’t have enough credits to get in that room,”.  This is normal and part of the process.

Each time your mind comes up with an objection, simply write it down on the “Why I CAN’T” side of the paper, put a big X through it, shout “NEXT!” and await the next positive solution.

Now that you’ve exhausted all of your ideas (and all of your objections), it’s time to take action.

Look at what you came up with on your “How I CAN” list.

Take action on EVERY SINGLE ONE of your ideas until you have either – gone through the entire list, or accomplished the goal, whichever comes first.

Remember – what you put energy into will grow.  Make the choice to look for how you CAN get what you want (instead of looking for why you CAN’T).

It may be scary, but wouldn’t you rather know you took every possible action toward your dream, rather than regret never truly going for it?

You are worth the risk of a little bit of fear, my friend!

Share a comment below.  Was this helpful?  Do you have your own method of creating possibility?  I want to hear from you.

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